[In Choi’s satire] Jang and five of his aides were stripped naked, thrown into a giant cage, and “entirely devoured” by 120 Manchurian hunting dogs that had been starved for three days. Kim conducted the hour-long spectacle himself before an audience of 300 North Korean officials, it added.

Choi’s post coincided with massive fact-checking laziness in the international press, as these lovely headlines can attest:

If you can’t trust The Mirror, who can you trust? The “news” was also reported by the International Business Times, the Daily Mail, and others. Not to name any names, but some of these publications are more respectable than others, and NBC/The Independent should likely know better.The Guardian lovingly restored reason and put an end to the rumor mills in an article yesterday, to remind us that, yes, North Korea is a bizarre and sensationalist place, but you still have to check your facts.